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Newsmakers

Bill Proposes Ban on Institutional Investments in Russia

The IMPAIR Russia Act would prohibit institutional investors from investing in Russian entities.
By Michael Katz



U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R- Florida, has introduced a bill that would prohibit institutional investors from making investments in Russian securities.

The Instituting Measures to Protect American Investors and Retirees from Russia Act, or IMPAIR Russia Act, would prevent investment firms, insurance companies and fiduciaries subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 from investing in Russian entities. 

The bill defines a “Russian entity’’ as any entity organized under the laws of the Russian Federation or otherwise subject to the jurisdiction of the Government of the Russian Federation. The bill stipulates that anyone who violates or attempts to violate the act will be subject to the penalties established in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

“Many Americans do not even realize that fund managers have placed their money in these Russian companies,” Rubio said in a statement. “Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has left the Russian economy in shambles. We need to minimize the resultant harm to Americans, including teachers and retirees, who have pensions and retirement accounts invested in Russian securities.”

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On February 24, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed economic sanctions targeting the core infrastructure of the Russian financial system, including all of Russia’s largest financial institutions and the ability of state-owned and private entities to raise capital. It also barred Russia from the global financial system.

And on March 8, President Joe Biden announced the U.S. was banning all imports of Russian oil, gas and other energy sources.

“We are enforcing the most significant package of economic sanctions in history, and it’s causing significant damage to Russia’s economy,” Biden said in a statement. “It has caused the Russian economy to, quite frankly, crater.”

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Home > News > Newsmakers > Three Australian Funds Merge to Create the Country’s Second-Largest Retirement Fund
Newsmakers

Three Australian Funds Merge to Create the Country’s Second-Largest Retirement Fund

Officials hope that the mergers will reduce management fees and increase retiree benefits.
By Anna Gordon



Three of Australia’s pension funds, Sunsuper, QSuper and Australian Post Super Scheme have merged to create a new pension fund called Australian Retirement Trust. Ian Patrick of Sunsuper will be the fund’s CIO.

Sunsuper and Qsuper were the first to merge to form the Australian Retirement Trust on February 28. The funds together have approximately $164 billion (A$220 billion) in assets under management.

Australian Post Super Scheme will formally merge with the other two funds on April 30, 2022. Australian Post Super Scheme has $6.2 billion (A$8.3 billion) assets under management according to its most recent annual report. Together, the three funds will have more than $170 billion in assets under management.

One of the primary purposes of these mergers is to reduce management fees, according to press releases.  

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“As the second-largest super fund in the industry, we’ll leverage our size and scale to seek out world-class investment opportunities for our members and deliver enhanced products and services and lower fees,” Australian Retirement Trust’s CEO Bernard Reilly said in the press release.

The process to merge the firms began a few years ago. Sunsuper and Qsuper had been in talks for two years, and finally announced the planned merger a year ago. Australian Post Super Scheme had been considering merging with Sunsuper even before then.

“Three years ago, the Australian Post Super Scheme initiated a review of the best ways to serve the long-term financial interests of our members and we are delighted that this competitive process sees us choosing to make a successor fund transfer into Australian Retirement Trust,” said Mark Birell, the Independent Chairman of Australian Post Super Scheme in the press release.

This is an ongoing trend in Australia. Fifteen Australian super fund mergers were announced in 2021, according to KPMG Australia. In many cases, poor-performing funds were pressured by regulators to merge with larger, better-performing funds.

According to a recent JP Morgan survey, approximately half of Australian pension fund leaders expect these mergers to increase. A quarter of them predict that in the near future, Australia will go from having 174 retirement funds to less than 50.

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